I'm a Daemon, so what? (Tensura/Multicross)

Story: I’m a Daemon, so what?

Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.

Chapter 153: Sacred Gears

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- Felix -

It had been a few days since Jin-Woo became the Shadow Monarch, and with that, some of the curiosity I had when I first came to this world had been satisfied, since I now understood the process by which he became a Spiritual Lifeform.

He essentially cheated his way there, but if you’re not cheating, then you’re not trying, so I respected it.

I could offer him some guidance. Being transformed from a somewhat standard Human to a Spiritual Lifeform was a massive change, I knew this first hand due to going from Human to Daemon. But in the end, we weren’t friends so I wasn’t going to go out of my way to speak to him. If he needed something, he’d come to me.

Though Megumin wanted to fight him. Once I gave her the go-ahead, I imagine she’d go and bother him. He was pretty talented, so that would likely end up helping him in some way anyway.

Even if Jin-Woo wasn’t strong enough to handle things like I remembered he did in canon, I’d already committed myself to protecting this world to some extent due to my interference already causing some butterflies to flap.

The Phantoms would likely make things a lot more difficult for the people of Earth, and likely cause a lot more deaths. I wasn’t a good person, but I still wanted to take responsibility for the consequences of my actions, so I suppose I was helping for a selfish reason yet again.

Now I was in an isolated dimension experimenting with Brahma, Lord of Creation a bit. I gave Middray a bit of a prototype for what I was trying to create.

With the war with the Eastern Empire coming, I wanted to gear up my military as best as possible. I couldn’t guarantee that I or my stronger allies/subordinates would be around when the troops themselves are fighting. It was war, so there may be unexpected factors we’d have to deal with, so I wanted to give my people the best odds I could.

In fact, it was likely that we would be kept busy, from what Guy said. Rudra was an intelligent individual, and by now they should have some hint of the sheer powerbase behind our little faction.

There was Myself, Rimuru, Veldora, and Chloe just at the initial border of the Eastern Empire, so we would be attacked first before anyone could establish a foothold to invade the rest of the continent.

Chloe wasn’t known, but just myself, Rimuru, and Veldora at the border should give him some pause. Rimuru’s power wasn’t known, but Veldora’s was, and thus mine was as well due to those rumors that sprung up.

Then there was Milim further down, and then Luminous and Hinata in the West. Carrion and Frey existed too, and while their power wasn’t particularly significant at this point, they were still greater than most Seeds.

Safe to say we had a gigantic powerbase.

I’d be disappointed if he didn’t have some kind of plan prepared for us, though Damrada knowing Rudra’s strategies would mitigate many risks.

Damrada and Arcueid had already strategized a bit. He believed that Rudra would likely make at least one more final push for more Saints, so there was a good chance the first "phase" of the war wouldn’t even be an all out attack from Rudra, but a mere operation of sending his people to their deaths in the hopes of Awakenings.

Some Emperor. Whether it was Michael, Lord of Justice in control or not didn’t matter anymore; Rudra’s actions were deeply fucked, but I wasn’t the type to be holier than thou and cast judgment on him for that.

Nah, I’d kill him for threatening what I cared for.

There was also the emotional factor to consider when it came to Damrada. I could always use Damrada in a clear and blatant way. He seemed close to Rudra, and Rudra had to have cared for Damrada in some way.

I was imagining something similar to what Kenjaku did to Satoru to get him off guard enough to trap him in the prison realm. It wouldn’t be needed since I was sure I could beat Rudra, that was just who I was, but it would be fun to try.

Good old mental warfare.

Though ideally at least one of my direct subordinates would be around to watch over the military. Fighting for the military wouldn’t be good as it would erase all the efforts they had put to protect their home. It would make their efforts, their blood, sweat, and tears meaningless.

Giving them the opportunity to protect their home in combat would only strengthen my nation, so I would give them that opportunity for when the Eastern Empire’s mortal army inevitably invaded my territory since Azeroth was a direct route to the Western Nations.

I didn’t plan to stay as the ruler of Azreoth forever, after all. That seemed boring. Maybe I’d pass it onto someone else, maybe I’d just leave them the foundation I created and see what they did from there.

I had more than made up for killing Clayman, their original ruler, by now. Now, I just wanted to prepare my nation to stand on its own two feet.

Along that line, Ingvild had actually sparked this idea in me. In DxD, there were Sacred Gears, essentially divine artifacts that held a variety of powers.

These artifacts were mostly created by sealing other beings into them or items/parts associated with powerful figures, allowing the artifact to tap into their power, which allowed the artifact’s user to also tap into this power with sufficient enough training.

And it was capable of channeling a variety of powers too, such as Boosting the output of an attack, Probability Manipulation, controlling the weather and its elements, even creating mindless creatures. There were quite a lot of possibilities.

All of it was managed by Heaven’s System too to make sure nothing got out of hand, though the System pretty much failed at its job for the major things.

There were weapons and equipment with certain effects. Some could even be said to be Skill-like in nature, though it was likely that none actually contained real Skills. It was more just the intrinsic effect of the weapon. Which was still good for higher level fighters who had no need for a crutch like the sacred gears I was designing.

But it would be more than useful for other more... average individuals. So I thought about recreating it. After all, Brahma can serve as Heaven’s System in this scenario, being the system meant to manage all the Sacred Gears. And instead of sealing living beings into Sacred Gears (which I could do), I wanted to try to seal Skills inside of the Sacred Gears. This would allow the wielders to wield the Skills almost as if they were their own.

The only downside is that Skills were essentially a condensed form of energy that was also a type of special phenomenon activation system, one that automatically performed various effects based on the "code" inscribed into the Skill.

Since Skills are essentially made of energy, I would need to use energy to create these Sacred Gears imbued with Skills, the good news is, for up to lower level Unique Skill-level Skills, I can create enough energy with Brahma, Lord of Creation so I don’t need to expend any of my own energy. Anything higher than that, I would need to spend my own energy, permanently decreasing my own reserves, which was fine for now.

I’d eventually figure out how to use environmental energy for that too.

Though compatibility and soul strength would still play a part in who can wield what level of sacred gear, the requirements would just be easier to meet than manifesting such a Skill on your own.

Just like Skills, the sacred gears would require an initial burst of soul energy to activate. Then it would be powered by the user’s own internal energy.

I wanted to give Middray something good for everything he’s done for Raiden, and even Milim. My idea was to create a pair of gauntlets, similar to what I gave him, but with the power of the Unique Skill: Amplifier in them.

Amplifier would allow Middray to enhance the momentum of anything, energy or even his fists. He could accelerate essentially most parts of himself, and when Middray was such a beast already, this would give him a qualitative boost.

And he’d just be the start. Even if most of the military that served under Megumin was incapable of housing the Unique-level sacred gears, and could only handle the Extra-level sacred gears, that would still be a huge win.

Extra Skills could be quite powerful as well. Abilities like the Elemental Manipulation Skills all started at the Extra Skill-level. Even Gravity Manipulation was there. So was Ultraspeed Regeneration, Magic Jamming, etc.

But first I had to succeed in creating these sacred gears. It would probably be easier with Othinus’s assistance, but I could manage something like this on my own. She was better than me at these more technical kinds of things, but it’s not like I was incompetent either. I may be the idea and combat guy among the two of us, since I was the one who truly made the techniques and Arts I copied my own, but I was still more than capable on the technical side.

The sheer data and understanding of the Laws I had ensured that I was.

The first step was designing the core: essentially the spiritual nucleus of the sacred gear. The Skill needed something to latch onto after all.

The core itself had to be relatively fancy enough to interface with a soul, read and process energy, and translate the Skill’s effects into usable action for a mortal body. It was sorta like trying to make a USB that plugs directly into someone’s soul, which was not easy to say the least.

Using Brahma’s power over Creation, I shaped the core out of pure spiritrons, mimicking the energy crystal present in the soul.

Spiritrons, when properly focused, could be used to hold a lot of Information Particles. It was essentially the core of all souls in the multiverse, and souls were filled to the brim with Information Particles.

Then came the coding of the Skill into the core.

This was where things got a bit annoying. Skills weren’t just simple clumps of energy, they were also essentially codeboxes that manipulated Laws in a preprogrammed way, like mini-programs embedded into reality.

The Amplifier Skill, for example, manipulated Laws that had to do with vectors, inertia, and force output, and then scaled them. I couldn’t just cram that into the gauntlet and call it a day.

I had to essentially rewrite that sort of Law Manipulation and adapt it to work through the gauntlets I was making. It had to be able to respond to Middray’s energy signature and intent.

That meant basically reverse engineering the Skill into a programmable structure that could basically "listen" for input, so that if Middray was winding up a punch, then the sacred gear would fire off a cascade of metaphysical functions to "amplify" that action so long as that was what Middray wanted, and that he supplied enough energy.

I had to tune the interface carefully so that the moment Middray threw a punch, the Gear would read his intent, estimate how strong the punch was going to be on its own, and then "amplify" the punch, all without actually overwhelming Middray himself, since it was possible to punch above your weight class with thisl.

If there was too much boost and he’d shatter his own arm like glass. Too little and there would be no point in me creating this. Though, for the most part, Middray would be the one actually deciding how much to amplify the attack, but I was making inbuilt safety mechanisms as well.

Once the Skill’s rewritten code was finalized, I poured it into the core using Brahma’s Creation power. This made the core even more similar to a soul, since the modified Skill itself was essentially just a layer of Information Particles around the core.

As the Infons of the Skill settled around the core I made sure to keep providing it with enough energy to stay stable. After stabilizing it, I began forging the physical gauntlets around the core.

I decided to use Adamantite for the outer shell. It was the most neutral of all the higher tier alloys, and had potential for growth if Middray wanted. With the amount of energy I was putting into these gauntlets, they would certainly be God Grade, but there were still tiers within God Grade.

As each gauntlet was materialized in front of me with Brahma, I made sure to fill them with magic circuits, making them extremely conductive for all kinds of energies, as well as runes that were meant to communicate with Middray’s soul.

These runes were the key to this sacred gear as they would make it so the sacred gear felt like an extension of his limbs, something he could instinctively control.

I added some adaptive features too. If Middray kept using the Gear consistently, it would start to evolve based on his fighting style and feedback.

It didn’t have any insane self-evolution feature like the sacred gears from DxD, but these at least would adapt to Middray and grow more synchronized with him as time went on.

Finally, once everything was constructed, I sealed it all together. I didn’t have to force too much as I pushed the physical housing (the gauntlets), and the core itself together. Mostly because intent matters, and from the start I intended for the two to become one.

I watched as the sacred gear released a burst of energy as the two parts became one.

And that was that, the prototype was complete. The power over creation that Brahma gave me made things like this relatively simple. Why worry about incompatibility if I could just create a material that was compatible?

Now that I had made it from scratch once, I should be able to create it whole with Brahma, Lord of Creation. If I wanted to, at least.

There was still testing to do, of course. Adjustments based on how Middray’s soul synced with the core, durability checks and whatnot, but my vision was mostly complete.

I put the gauntlets on, only connecting them to my soul with a string of energy, as I’d need to remove it later.

As the gauntlets hummed with energy, I flexed my fingers, testing the integrity of the soul-link. It was mostly responsive. Not perfect, but that was to be expected with such a small connection.

I gave the air a light jab, barely exerting any force at all.

A boom echoed through the isolated dimension as a ripple of force tore through the space in front of me, carving a faint groove into the crystallized ground.

"That’s quite promising."

Not only did the gauntlet react in perfect sync with my movement, it also fed me real-time feedback on energy consumption and efficiency.

With that done, I stored the gauntlets away in my Infinity Space and collapsed the dimension, returning my surroundings back to the penthouse.

I had some more ideas for other equipment to gear my people up with as well, in case the sacred gear idea fell through. Such as mass producing weapons with Anti-Skill properties, but I’d look into that if my sacred gear idea wasn’t as practical as I believed it was.

Hmm, that was one of the main things I wanted to do today. Sure, I could be more productive and come up with some other stuff, or brainstorm ideas, but I’d rather save the uselessness of today, for the usefulness of tomorrow.

I did want to check in on Arcueid though. Chronologically speaking, Dagruel’s representative would be showing up soon, and she’d be mostly handling him on her own.

I was confident in Arcueid’s abilities, but it didn’t hurt to offer my help if she needed it in anything.

It didn’t take long for Arcueid to pick up my communication through the ring. "Greetings, my Lord." Arcueid’s voice purred into my mind.

"Everything is fine I hope?"

"Of course, I am settling final preparations for the arrival of Dagruel’s representative, whoever they may be." She shared.

"Do you need any help?"

"I do not, my Lord, but I appreciate the offer." She said with gentleness.

"Let me know if anything comes up, I can be there in an instant."

"I will, my Lord. There is no use worrying excessively, trust me to handle it."

"Of course. I’ll trust you to handle it then."

The two of us continued to chat for a little while longer, with me asking about Raiden a bit. Middray had gone back to Milim’s kingdom because he couldn’t be away for an excessively long period of time. He was the leader of Milim’s religion, so Raiden wasn’t training with him anymore.

Using this time she was apparently training the Maid Corps, and according to Arcueid, the training was rather effective. Though Arcueid did note that Raiden was giving private lessons to Evelyn, but she didn’t look into it deeper.

I just shrugged at that Raiden probably saw the potential in Evelyn or something; she was a vessel of Elmesia’s.

- Raiden -

Raiden sat cross-legged on the edge of the velvet couch, a long, black silicone dildo in hand, veined and thick, gleaming slightly with lube. It was modeled perfectly after her Master’s glorious shaft.

Evelyn knelt before her on a plush cushion, hair tied back, lips parted, eyes flicking between Raiden’s face and the toy. She was nervous, but also curious, this wasn’t the first time Raiden had taught her of this specific art.

Her Master seemed to be oddly interested in Evelyn, something Evelyn should be honored by, and her Master also asked her to train Evelyn the best she could. Of course Raiden could read between the lines and realize just what her Master wanted out of Evelyn. He wanted Evelyn in the same way he wanted her, he wanted Evelyn to be his.

Though she had noticed the oddities around Evelyn, more so after evolving into a Divine Dragon. She never sensed too deeply into Evelyn, as she did respect her subordinates’ privacy, but it almost felt like Evelyn wasn’t truly whole.

But of course something like that would not slip by her Master, and yet Evelyn was still here, and so there must be a reason for it. It was not her place as a maid to pry too much into Evelyn’s affairs in that case.

So long as it did not affect Evelyn’s duties that is.

"We will start slow." She told Evelyn as she held up the lifelike model of her Master’s shaft, bathing it in divine light. "I will give you another example." She told Evelyn who slowly nodded.

- Elmesia -

There was definitely something wrong with this maid. In what world did the head maid teach a lower ranking maid how to best serve their Master?

Or maybe that was what all the Western nobles got up to? She wouldn’t know. She wasn’t even sure why she was going along with this farce.

She sighed as Raiden completely throated the so-called replica model of Felix’s shaft.

- Felix -

Yeah, Raiden was probably teaching her important stuff.

I’d check in on Saeko when I went to pick up Luminous too.

"I’ll let you continue your preparations, I’m sure you’re busy enough."

"Ara, it is no trouble, my Lord. In fact, if I could, I would abandon all my duties to be there with you now, but I will not fail you." She said with an ernest need to please, which made me feel a bit guilty.

I was already planning on taking Arcueid out somewhere. She had been managing my kingdom practically since day 1. Every time I told her to take a break she refused, stating that she enjoyed what she did, but maybe I’d just force her to go out with me for a while sometime.

"I’ll leave it to you then, Arcueid." With that, our call ended.

Most of the preparations for Ingvild’s concert were done, but Arcuied asked if there was any help I needed, so I just had her help arrange the food that would be available. It was a bit out of the norm to have such a massive concert as her debut, but I was rich. I could do what I wanted to make those close to me happy.

Kurumi had returned from Carrion’s kingdom and was running around helping Arcuied with making preparations for Dagruel’s representative, which was more complex than I would have thought, but it made sense on second thought.

There was a feast that Raiden had helped prepare. Arcueid was also making sure that Dagura, Liura, and Debura were there. She believed it would help the trade talks if they were there, shown to be on our side.

She also told me that Sukuna had also pretty much locked himself in a training dimension. Apparently he was just sitting crosslegged, meditating. Arcueid was pretty attuned to the soul, so she had noticed the change inside of him.

Her exact words were that it was as if the two egos inside of him were fighting for dominance, with either one winning or both merging into one.

I wasn’t worried either way, even if the original Sukuna were to be restored. His talent aside, I could more than deal with him, and many others under me could also deal with him.

It was amusing that Sukuna’s plot armor was working even now though.

I could feel Othinus’ embarrassment. ’I told you not to worry about it, Othinus. It was a small mistake Odin made, not even really the you here with me right now.’

"I know, Master. But it galls me at my failure."

’Well just learn from it, that’s all you can do.’

She sighed. "Indeed."

’You need to chill out a bit too. Here, how about this: why don’t the two of us go out some time, on a date or something?’

Yes, going out together with the AI-like being in my head was a great idea.

Was that technically selfcest?

I could feel Othinus’ shock. She was silent for a beat, her presence flickering uncertainly in the back of my mind like static.

"A...date?" She finally said, her voice lost. "With you?"

’Yeah, why not.’ I said casually. ’We can make the time for it. You already know basically everything about me. I doubt there is a higher level of closeness and codependence than that.’ I said with a shrug.

Her silence lingered, heavy and awkward, but not cold. It was more like someone standing at the edge of a cliff, peering down into waters they couldn’t quite see the bottom of.

"I..." She hesitated for a moment. It seems this wasn’t something she was expecting, which was odd considering how she was in my soul. I truly did love Othinus, whether that was romantic, platonic, or whatever, it didn’t matter.

She was my partner in all ways that matters, if this was something that Othinus wanted to pursue, then I’d do it for her, simple as that.

"I do know you, more intimately than any mortal ever could. Every fleeting thought, every hesitation, every selfish urge, it is all laid bare before me."

’Well, when you say it like that, it’s a bit embarrassing.’

"Which is why it is difficult for me to understand why you would want me in such a case. Most do not prefer it when their partners know everything about them."

’Eh, well I’d say it’s safe to say that we aren’t most people.’

It wasn’t like I exclusively wanted a more romantic relationship with Othinus. She is literally inside of me. I’m pretty sure that we were as intimate as could be.

But I could tell that Othinus wanted something more. She had professed her love for me on numerous occasions, and I thought it was purely platonic at the start, but with Lover I was beginning to suspect otherwise.

If I was wrong, then I was wrong.

Othinus remained silent at my thoughts, but I could sense the way her emotions tangled, pride prickling, shame curling at the edges, adoration, love, and something else she rarely let surface, vulnerability.

"I suppose I am willing to explore our partnership in that direction. As you said, it is not as if any two beings can be more intimate than us. This will just be another layer to it."

’When you think of it like that, it does seem only natural.’

"Indeed, my Master." Othinus said with happiness, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

As I returned my focus back to the real world, I heard Lalatina call out. "Did you succeed, Master~?" Lalatina asked as she came from the kitchen, sweets in hand.

"Mhmm." I nodded as I took a seat on the couch. I had nothing coming up for some time, so I could laze around for a bit.

"Hmm, that’s good then. The idea was rather novel. Imbuing an artifact with a Skill is something most would not consider." She said as she took a seat beside me, cuddling up into my side as she passed me the plate.

"I won’t take credit for the idea." I told her as I threw a cupcake into my mouth.

"Ooh did you succeed Felix!?" Milim asked as she jumped into the living room from her room. Milim also noticed the plate of sweets so I floated it over to her.

"Of course I did." I said to her.

Milim pumped her fist as she stuffed her face. "Woah, that’s super cool bestie! Can I see, can I see, can I see?" She repeated as she held her hand out with excitement.

I rolled my eyes. I had told her about the gift I had for Middray, and she even helped design the initial look of the gauntlets.

So I snapped my fingers, summoning the gauntlets out of Infinity Space and into Milim’s hands.

"Woah, so cool!" She yelled as she jumped around like she was on a sugar high. Going by the sheer quantity of sugar she had been consuming, maybe she was. Even sugar could get past the mythical defense of a Spiritual Lifeform like Milim, I guess.

She put the gauntlets on, but with Milim Eye I could see that she didn’t allow it to connect with her, which was wise.

She didn’t have the same fine control over her soul that I did, so connecting herself to the gauntlets by a sliver would be harder for her.

"Ooh, these are pretty nice!" She said as she shadowboxed around. As Milim did so, Sirka arrived, took one look at what Milim was doing, then went back inside.

You know, I could respect that. I feel like Sirka and Frey will be getting along quite well.

"Yup, Middray will love this." Milim said with a nod as she took the gauntlets off and gave them back to me.

"That’s good then."

I paused as I felt the ring I had given to everyone to alert me of an incoming Thought Communication.

I answered. "Felix." I heard Luminous’s voice in my head come through.

"Luminous. Everything set?"

"Yes, Hinata has done enough that she can leave the rest to her subordinates."

"I’ll be there soon then."

"Welp, I’m going to go pick up Hinata and Luminous." I told everyone.

Lalatina pouted as I got up, but Milim seemed excited. "Ooh, I can’t wait to show Luminous my favorite ice cream store!" Milim said with a laugh.

"I’m sure she’d enjoy it too." I told Milim. "But I’ll be back soon."

"Mmkay, see ya Felix!" Milim said with a wave as I teleported back to the Cardinal World.

I had pulled Saeko’s coordinates directly from our soul corridor, so I could appear close to her. She was in Ruberious, so I’d like to check in on her too.

I took a deep breath as I appeared in the Cardinal World. It was always something to get used to, going from the energy poor environment of Earth to the energy rich environment of the Cardinal World. There was no comparison.

I looked around at where I had appeared. It was a kitchen of some kind, with chefs of all kinds walking around, doing their thing. They were all Vampires; decently strong ones too. They were probably Luminous’s personal chefs going by our current location.

I was concealing myself so I didn’t cause a panic, but it didn’t take long for me to spot Saeko, so I revealed myself. Saeko immediately spotted me and grinned. "Felix-sama!" She greeted me with her arms spread as she pulled me into an affectionate hug.

I returned the hug. Saeko really was like a cuddly puppy.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself, Saeko."

She was dressed in a standard chef attire, with the sleeves rolled up, a white hat, buttoned shirt, and an apron.

"I am!" She said cheerfully, pulling back just enough to beam up at me.

"That’s good then. It seems you haven’t been slacking in your training either. I can hardly feel your Aura leaking anymore."

Saeko nodded proudly. "Umu! Luminous had been teaching me her tricks and helped me a lot!"

Luminous probably had to deal with the same issues Saeko was, and she seemingly had a unique knack for getting Saeko to actually learn what she was trying to teach. Saeko was a far more instinctive learner.

Saeko and I caught up for a few minutes. We didn’t have a whole lot to talk about since I saw her last time I was here, which was not long ago at all when I picked up Milim. It was only a week ago.

But even then, it was nice to just sit in silence with Saeko, but I did leave her eventually. Apparently the chef overseeing her was a rather strict one, so she couldn’t be gone long. Saeko respected his abilities, so she followed along with his rules.

Apparently, he was some old Vampire who had been serving Luminous for centuries. He was once a Human but Luminous had Louis himself turn the chef into a Vampire due to his cooking ability.

With all the centuries he had, and how the older the Vampire, the stronger they are, he was likely around Calamity Class, maybe Disaster Class.

Vampire hierarchy was rather interesting at first glance. I planned to ask Luminous a bit more about it at some point.

After Saeko, I ended up deciding to visit Raiden and Arcueid, even if shortly. Sure, it had only been a week since I last saw them, but what kind of lover would I be if I didn’t stop by to see them when I was in the "area"?

Both were pleasantly surprised. Arcueid most of all since she said she was fine on her own, but I could tell she appreciated it nonetheless.

Though apparently Raiden and Evelyn had just finished up their "private" training session, and Evelyn was looking at me awfully weirdly. Through Lover I could read her emotions pretty well; she was aroused, embarrassed, excited, prideful, and a host of other emotions.

In the end I just decided to leave it at that. Evelyn/Elmesia had already proven to be a very emotionally complex individual. Though I still planned to continue to mess with her. Her reactions were hilarious, and since she hadn’t attempted to stop me (I made it clear that she could), I could only assume that she enjoyed our little games as well.

Kurumi was also excited to see me despite seeing her only a short while ago. She showed me some of the new art work she had created, a few of them being of my own visage, which was sweet.

All of them had been making progress in their own ways, completely independent of me, which made me glad.

I had also spoken to Rimuru through a Thought Communication to see where he stood. He was still a bit busy, but he said he’d be done soon.

He already had some ideas for what he wanted to accomplish in the world of Solo Leveling aside from relaxing. He basically wanted to acquire a bunch of blueprints for random everyday things. He could make them himself or get them made, but that would require resources, so he wanted to trade basic things from the Cardinal World for them. That way both parties would benefit.

Though he also said he’d like to help them in general as well. Their Earth was massively fucked up, and had a thin veneer of not being a doomsday situation, and he was a bit of an empathetic individual.

But he understood that handing them everything would only doom them in the long run, so he planned to give ideas, and some minor resources and whatnot. But he seemed reassured when I said I’d protect them if things really went bad, though I didn’t tell him that I was technically the cause of Phantoms being in that universe. He didn’t even know that they were there, if he even knew what Phantoms were in the first place.

Now I was going to pick up Hinata.

In the blink of an eye I teleported close to where Hinata was.

Right now I was floating above the home she seemed to have in Lune. In the blink of an eye, I descended and knocked on the door to her home.

After a few moments the door was opened. "Ye–, Felix!?"

I had concealed my presence to surprise Hinata. "Sup." I greeted her as I walked past her and into her house.

"You didn’t have this place last time I was here."

Hinata sighed from behind me before closing the door. "Indeed. Luminous gave it to me after the attack fiasco." She said as she followed behind me.

It was a pretty nice place all things considered. "Ooh, I didn’t know you read manga." I said, referring to the manga shelf on the wall.

Hinata looked to the side in embarrassment. "Luminous may have mentioned that the world you originate from is one that was a manga in your first life, so she procured the manga of it for me from Tempest."

I blinked next to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Aww, you wanted to know more about little old me? I’m touched." I said as I released her, approaching the shelf again.

I looked through the shelf, there was a bunch of good stuff. One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Jujutsu Kaisen, and many others.

"I was surprised to learn how many of your, Rimuru’s, and Veldora’s moves were inspired by these manga." Hinata shared.

"Mhmm." I nodded. "In a world like this one, where magic is heavily based on imagination, there isn’t a lot that is explicitly not possible."

"Indeed. That is something I discovered as well recently." Hinata responded.

I put the manga I was flipping through back on the shelf. "Let’s go get Luminous then. She told me you all were ready."

Hinata nodded. "I believe that I completed my part a few short hours ago. I’m surprised she told you almost right away. Perhaps she is looking forward to this trip with you more than she outwardly expresses."

"Not just with me, I imagine. She cares for you dearly too." I said as I ruffled Hinata’s hair.

Hinata brushed my hand away as she quickly fixed her hair, all while shooting me a look of annoyance. "I’m older than you, you know."

"Still weaker than me." I said in a sing-song tone of voice as I walked out of the house.

Hinata just sighed and followed along. "Why are we walking?"

"No reason. I just wanted to make a dramatic exit." I shrugged.

Hinata sighed once again as I transported the two of us to where Luminous was.

We appeared in Night Garden; more specifically the living room where we could see Luminous laying on her couch lazily with Gunther serving her tea.

"Hmph, picking me up last, my dear Consort?" Luminous asked with a tilt of her head.

I rolled my eyes. "Don’t ask as if you didn’t mind the extra time to laze around."

Luminous just smirked in response.

I gestured for her to get up. "Come on, let’s go you NEET."

Hinata was just looking at us weirdly. "This looks like one of those American sitcoms waiting to happen." Hinata mused out loud, but the two of us just ignored her.

With a sigh far too dramatic for the situation, she rose from the couch, letting Gunther take her empty cup in the process. "Very well then. Lead the way."

I just shook my head and sighed at Luminous’ antics. "Is there anything you want to get before we leave?"

Both shook their heads.

"Hmm, let’s go then."

For dramatic effect I snapped my fingers, creating a portal in front of us. The moment I did so instead of going through the portal I could feel Luminous and Hinata attempt to analyze it, and I didn’t stop them.

If they managed to actually understand how it worked, then good for them, but it required an immense mastery of Space-Time, something both currently lacked as far as I knew.

But maybe it would help them begin to understand.

After a few moments, Hinata sighed. "Even with Fortuna I cannot make heads or tails of this."

Luminous nodded. "Indeed. It is an incredibly complex manifestation of Space-Time Manipulation."

Both were looking at me with various looks of pride and appreciation.

"I can’t take full credit. It would have taken me longer to really understand and begin to use it without Othinus."

At Othinus’s name, Hinata pursed her lips, while Luminous just seemed moderately interested.

’What did you do to Hinata for her to react like that?’

"I merely forced her to confront her feelings."

’Ah, so you’re why she’s actually being proactive with me. I thank you for your assistance Mistress!’

Though it was about time that I went on the offense with her too. She’s had more than enough time to consider if she really wanted something with me, and she was straightforward enough to inform me of if she had changed her mind.

Until then, I’d continue to act like we were in the courting phase to see how it goes. Perhaps I’d take her out somewhere in the world of Solo Leveling. It was an Earth, so it would probably feel closer to home for her.

"Fufufu, of course, Master. Anything for your happiness."

I just smiled at Othinus’s ceaseless devotion, I knew that thanking her would only insult her so I was content to show my appreciation in other ways. She was a living being too after all. Her life shouldn’t solely be about doing what I wanted; that was no way to live, and not something I’d want for her.

Going on a date with me to enjoy life was just one step in that direction, and I’d be happy if she enjoyed the date at all.

But I could think on that another time, when Luminous and Hinata weren’t with me.

"Let’s go then." I said, gesturing them forwards.

Both of them looked at each other before walking forward through the portal.

___________________________________________________________________

I am highly motivated by your guys’ reviews and likes, so do that! I’ll probably keep writing or something.

I have a discord server, come hang out if you want! https://discord.gg/VxR5Gn72Fp I also have a channel in Shiro’s Gaming Omniverse.

Links: patreon.com/theogbasilisk

Author’s Note:

Sup everyone, back with another Chapter of Daemon. A bit shorter than average but I mostly covered everything I wanted to cover.

We get Felix reverse engineering sacred gears for future use, shout out to Ancalagon for the good idea.

Then we finally get Luminous and Hinata to solo leveling, this is when things should start to pick up a bit more in terms of solo leveling plot as a bunch of events beginning happening in close proximity. I am messing with the timeline a bit to make things line up a bit more nicely, but it isn’t anything major.

I could have added words by describing Felix’s conversations with Arcueid, Raiden, etc, but that felt like adding words for the sake of words.

Anyways, thanks for reading, peace.

Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta’ing this Chapter.

Last bit of editing -Omnax

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